Is my computer obsolete?

M

mandrake

Registered
Hi.

When I bought my PM G4 450 it was really fast.
It´s still really fast! Under OS 9.1 that is.
When X came out I was really excited and all and accepted the slow system that osx is. But OK... Let´s say that OS X 10.1 cuts the waiting time to half... It would still be a slow OS on my machine. And if osx as an OS is slow... how would that affect the games I´m playing? Do I really have to buy a new 733 to get decent performance? I already have 512 MB of RAM and a fast 7200 RPM disk. A Gf2MX is on the way....

/Glenn
 
Are you kidding me ???
If you are having such doubts... what can I say ... I have a 350 G3 lol :p
My rule of thumb is that one computer is not obsolete so long as it has some use

also it is my experience that people are never satisfied with what they have. The grass is always greener somewhere else...if we have A we was 2A and if we have 2A we want 4A ... it never stops :)

so dont worry :)
 
I'm reminded of an article i saw about a year ago. It said that computing growth would stop when we got to 1ghz processors, because most people didn't need anything better than that. While it is true that most people dont need more than that, its also true that everyone wants the most for their money. So insted of buying something worthwhile, like RAM or an hard drive, these people get an extra 100mhz tacked onto their processor, just so they can say, i got the best that there is! This continues on and on. I am a fan of progress, but can't some people just deicide, ok, this is enough power for everything that i need to do, i dont need the top of the line model. The truth is, people wont be satisfied with their computing power until computer can actually mimick real life in every way. Can anyone say, The Matrix?:D We have a long way to go....
 
There were also articles that said growth would stop when 386 class processors became commonplace, because 'people don't need any more than that.' And most people *didn't* for what they used their computer for back then - running DOS, word processing, 2d games, text BBSes and so on. Obviously, along game GUIs, 3d games, the web, and people needed more power. The same thing will happen again. I think physical law will be the only thing to stop cpu speeds from increasing. But then, I rembemer reading articles 10 or so years ago about how CPUs will never be able to get much faster than 100mhz, due to heat & power concerns.

So insted of buying something worthwhile, like RAM or an hard drive, these people get an extra 100mhz tacked onto their processor
Click to expand...

Actually, there's a good reason to do that - you can always get a bigger/extra HD and add more ram as you need it; it's a lot harder to upgrade your processor speed after the fact.

but can't some people just deicide, ok, this is enough power for everything that i need to do, i dont need the top of the line model
Click to expand...

Well I did :) When I got the Mac I'm using now, for the same price, I could have gotten a 450mhz G4 with DVD-ROM, or a 400mhz with DVD-RAM. I chose the DVD-RAM, because I figured it would keep me from running out of HD space so soon. It didn't but I have a lot of backups... and who really would be able to tell the difference between a 400mhz and 450mhz G4 anymore? They're both equally slow.:p
 
all I can say:
I installed 5F24 on such a machine (PM G4 450) and it was FAST! I mean FAST! It was snappy. It was cool. It made fun! (apart from the fact that nothing really worked). I only tested it for maybe half an hour, then I kicked it from the system (I don't wanna work with a stolen pre-release version).

All I can say, that once 10.1 is out, you will have fun using OS X!
And hey...I have the luck to have to PMs at home at the moment! One is a G4 Cube 500 Mhz and the other one is a Dual 800 Mhz Quicksilver. Guess what? 10.0.4 is as crappy on the Dual as on the Cube...it's not the speed of the processor which slows the current OS X down...it's the OS itself.
I actually stopped using 10.0.4 a few weeks ago....and I am using OS X since beta-days, I really love it, but it was too slow. But when I test-drove (as I call it ;) 5F24.....DAMNIT! Pretty! Fast! Gotta have it! And this was a buggy beta-pre-release-stolen-piece-of-crap-version!!!

No, your Mac is not obsolete....wait for september and then post to this forum what you think ;)

ulrik

and before somebody flames me for beeing a "software pirate"...I own four copies of MacOS X and payed for all! (for the Beta and 10.0.0, the other ones came with my Macs)
 
Reply endian:

While it can be a good idea to go for a more powerful processor because they aren't as readily upgradable, that wasn't the point i was trying to make. I should have been clearer. What i was trying to say was that processors have become dramatically faster, while the content that they process has not gotten dramatically more complex. The average user that only uses IE and Outlook, or possibly just AOL will not benefit from these processors. Buying these processors is simply overkill for these users. While eventually e-mail and the net will include more multimedia effects, and require better processors, right now, the bottom of the line processors are more powerful than a lot of people think they need.

Of course, winXP and OS X will problably change all of that.
 
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